Garfield: The Movie
Garfield: The Movie, also known as Garfield, is a is a 2004 live-action movie based on the Jim Davis comic strip Garfield. In this movie, Garfield the cat was created with computer-generated imagery, though all other animals were real. The film was originally to be produced in 2D by 20th Century Fox Animation, but duties were transferred to Davis Entertainment and 20th Century Fox. The movie was directed by Peter Hewitt, produced by Davis Entertainment for 20th Century Fox, and stars Breckin Meyer as Jon Arbuckle, Jennifer Love Hewitt as Dr. Liz Wilson, and features Bill Murray as the voice of Garfield. The movie was released in the United States on June 11, 2004. Reviews of the movie were generally very negative, although Murray's voice work received some positive notices. Baha Men performed the song "Holla!" for the film and its soundtrack. The music video premiered in early summer 2004 and featured clips from the film and gags showing obvious references to the Garfield franchise (such as lasagna jokes). Plot It begins when Garfield is a fat lazy cat (voiced by Bill Murray) who lives with Jon Arbuckle, wakes up from a good night's sleep and awaits a tasty breakfast. Jon is woken by the fat cat with a dogpile. After switching his liver flavored cat food with Jon's corned beef hash, Garfield spots a pie outside on the neighbor's window. He tricks the Doberman Pinscher Luca (voiced by Brad Garrett) in order to get the pie and tangling his leash around many bushes and ceramic ducks. He also tricks his dimwitted neighbor cat Nermal (voiced David Eigenberg) to tip over a milk bottle through a series of things connected you find around the house e.g. pots,a bucket in which Nermal has to get in so Garfield's trick works for Garfield every morning. After walking the cul-de-sac, Jon spots a mouse and counts on Garfield to get it. Garfield refuses and Jon runs after the rodent. He then trips on one of Garfield's toys and says "What good is it to have a cat, if it can't catch a mouse". Garfield then runs outside and catches up to the mouse. The mouse turns out to be Garfield's best friend and his name is Louis (voiced by Nick Cannon) and he was warned by Garfield that he should not run around the house when Jon is home. Jon walks out after Garfield and sees Louis in his mouth. Jon is proud of the tabby cat and when he leaves Garfield spits him out and spares his life. He only did it so Jon wouldn't hurt him. At the telegraph tower, Happy Chapman (the main villain played by Stephen Tobolowsky) the star of a Saturday morning show is sick of cats (because of his allergies) and wishes for a dog star along with him, and to outdo his more successful twin brother Walter, a news anchor. After his show, Jon comes home with some food he bought at the store. Garfield pigs out of the lasagna trays and Jon is terribly disappointed. Garfield is brought to the vet (Garfield previously thought he was going to Chuck E Cheese's, Wendy's, Taco Kitty or Olive Garden), with Jon and is checked out by Liz (a vet played by Jennifer Love Hewitt), a nice and attractive veterinarian and is also Jon's high school crush. Jon tries to ask her out when a dog is brought in. His name is Odie and Liz asks Jon to take care of Odie or he will not survive on his own. Garfield comes out of the vet and sees Odie in the car, and Liz ends up asking Jon out. Garfield is (needless to say) not very happy now that a dog is running amuck in the house, sitting in his chair, getting the paper, and sleeping beside Jon when Garfield is not allowed to. To make things worse, Liz shows up and Jon, with Odie, leave to go to the town dog show, and Garfield chases after them. At the dog show (where Liz is a judge) and where Jon is in the audience with Odie, Garfield unwittingly walks right into the show, is spotted by the dogs competing in the show and runs away with the dogs in hot pursuit. The music goes on and Odie leaps out of Jon's hands and attempts to dance (just as when Garfield was dancing back at the house). The judges are impressed as well as the audience. Garfield succeeds in escaping and Odie is rewarded by Happy Chapman (also a judge) He says Odie may have a future in television, but Jon turns it down. When a picture for the news paper is taken, you can see Happy looking greedily at Odie. Garfield hangs on under Liz's truck on the way back, and Jon and Liz plan a dinner on Sunday. Garfield is very angry because Odie got all the attention. He smacks a ball which starts an unusual Rube Goldberg machine which causes the square shelves above the computer to fall down, leaving the house in shambles. Garfield gets kicked out and he watches in the windows how much Jon loves Odie. He sleeps on the porch that night and Odie comes out to comfort him. Garfield is touched, but then hops inside and locks the doggy door, and locks Odie out. Odie runs away and ends up found by a sweet old lady. Jon finds out Odie has gone and he feels terrible. After putting up posters around town, Liz arrives for the dinner, Jon cancels the dinner and tells Liz about Odie. Jon and Liz then work to together to find Odie. Meanwhile Happy Chapman finds a found poster by the old lady and knows it is Odie. He takes back Odie (which is a crime, because it is not his dog) and the dog performs on the Happy Chapman show. Garfield sees him and Happy announces that he and Odie are going to New York by train for a big performance. Garfield attempts to show Jon, but the show goes to a Wendy's commercial. Garfield then sets out on a mission to rescue the pup. In the city, Garfield meets Louis again and the mouse guides the fat cat to the Telegraph Tower. Garfield can't go in by the doors, so he climbs the vents and finds Odie in Happy's room. Happy comes in and puts on an inhumane shock collar that with a press of a button, Odie gets a small shock and performs a backflip. Happy then heads to the Train Station and Garfield follows behind. The tabby is caught by Animal Control and is thrown in the pound. Jon sees Liz at a clothing store and tells Liz that Garfield has run away too. The couple goes and investigates. Finding a found poster of Odie, the old lady says Odie is Happy Chapman's dog (which is not true!) and the two drive to telegraph tower. Garfield, at the pound meets Persnikitty (voiced by Alan Cumming), Happy's last show cat that he threw inside the pound. A family arrives to take a cat home for a pet. Persnikitty, Garfield, and 3 other cats are taken and lined up behind a wall. The little girl picks Persnikitty. The old show cat tells Garfield that he will press the red button (which opens all the cages) in order to escape. All the caged up animals ran like mad cows out in the city. At the Train Station, Happy places Odie in the luggage cart and sits down for lunch. Garfield just misses the train. Jon and Liz arrive at the Train Station after being told that Happy was going to leave. Garfield sneaks into the control room, and messes with the commands. The tracks get rearranged that all the trains are on the same tracks. Just when the trains are about to collide, Garfield stops all the trains with the press of a certain button. Garfield climbs in the luggage cart after the train returns to the station. He reunites with Odie. Happy sees Garfield and Odie walk out and is shocked. He runs out and chases them into the station's luggage halls, traps the two animals and threatens Odie with the shock collar. Garfield jumps to the rescue and Happy throws the tabby on some luggage. Garfield gets up and is greeted by the pound animals. They've come to help. The animals corner Happy, and Garfield gives orders to attack and place the shock collar on Happy's neck. The pound animal leaves and Garfield and Odie finish off Happy with 2 shocks of the collar. Jon and Liz arrive, Jon furiously punches Chapman. Jon promises the cat and dog to never leave them out of his sight. Chapman gets arrested and Garfield's now known as a hero. Back home, Liz and Jon began a relationship, along with a passionate kiss. Garfield learns friendship and love, and they live as a big happy family....But all that changes when he intentionally pushes Odie off his chair over and over again. The film closes with Garfield singing and dancing to James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)". He does a split and can't get up. Reception The movie was released with huge backlash from many critics. The movie received a "rotten" 14% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, 4 points shy of being placed on the website's "100 Worst Movies of All Time" list. Yahoo! Movies critics' gave it a C-. Roger Ebert gave Garfield The Movie a "Thumbs Up" stating that he felt that the movie "is funny and charming," while The Washington Post said it is "fun" and People thought it "Clever." Box office Differences from comic * In the film, Jon drives a green Volvo S60 as opposed to his red sedan in the comics, cartoons, and other media. This also changed in Garfield 2, because in that, Jon drives a blue Volvo V50. * In the movie, Liz is portrayed as Jon's love interest, which is significantly different from her comic portrayal, in which she repels Jon's advances and insisting on keeping the relationship professional. Up until recently Jon's entire romantic life in the comics has been a series of cancelled or failed dates. On July 26, 2006 Liz did finally succumb to Jon's "charms" in the comic strip and has at last started dating him. * Nermal is portrayed as a playmate of Garfield. In the comic strip, he is a vain kitten that often visits Garfield to remind him of his old age, usually on or near his birthday, which usually results with Garfield doing him in.needed He also seems to be slightly dim-witted, while his comic counterpart was vain. * In the comic strip and animated series, Garfield is portrayed as an extremely lazy cat, seen mostly sleeping or eating. In the movie, Garfield can be seen dancing, running, jumping, and making a lot of other movement. This was also noted in Garfield and Friends. * Jon got Odie from Liz in the movie. In the strip, Lyman showed up with Odie in tow. * Odie in the film is a Dachshund. In the comic strip, Odie is a beagle with a black spot on his side. * Arlene's fur was dark gray instead of pink. Nermal's colour is different too; he is portrayed as a seal point siamese though he was a gray tabby originally. * Arlene in the film appears to be more of Garfield's friend whereas in the comic, she is his love interest (although a deleted scene shows him flirting with Arlene before being distracted by a pie). * In the comics and TV series, Jon is portrayed as a nerd with very little success in love. In the movie, he is no longer portrayed as a loser, simply a shy guy who has a good relationship with Liz and even knocks-out Happy Chapman in one punch. * In the TV Show, Nermal sounds more feminine, despite being male. In the film, he sounds like a male teenager. * In the film, (As well as the sequel and the CGI movies) Garfield's mouth moves when he's talking. In the comic strip and all the 2D TV cartoons, however, he solely verbalizes his thoughts via thought balloons and voice-over, respectively. Despite this, no humans can understand what he, or any other animals, say in the film for obvious reasons. Cast * Breckin Meyer - Jon Arbuckle * Jennifer Love Hewitt - Dr. Liz Wilson * Stephen Tobolowsky - Happy Chapman * Evan Arnold - Wendall * Mark Christopher Lawrence - Christopher Mello Voice Cast * Bill Murray - Voice of Garfield * Nick Cannon - Voice of Louis * Alan Cumming - Voice of Persnikitty (he renamed himself "Sir Roland") * David Eigenberg - Voice of Nermal * Brad Garrett - Voice of Luca * Debra Messing - Voice of Arlene * Richard Kind - Voice of Dad Rat * Debra Jo Rupp - Voice of Mom Rat * Alyson Stoner - Voice of Kid Rat #3 * Billy West - Voice of Dog *Mo'Nique had a role in the film as the voice of a rat but her role was deleted from the final cut of the movie. Sequel Main Article : Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties A sequel, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, was released in movie theaters on June 16, 2006 in North America Category:Movies